It is highly desirable to have sterilization processes and apparatus that avoid the need for temperatures above 60° C. while achieving the highest possible efficacy in pathogen destruction, especially when treating occluded, mated and lumen surfaces.
The use of high temperatures leads to complex and costly sterilization instruments, and more importantly, can damage many materials. This is a problem both in terms of patient safety and apparatus cost.
It is desirable that the disinfecting methods use hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide at low concentrations is safe to transport, sell and handle and is extremely well known, with little or no regulatory barriers to its use. However, there are problems with those methods which require high concentration hydrogen peroxide as a starting material. For example, commercial vapour and plasma processes use as a starting material corrosive and irritating 60% peroxide solutions which requiring special packaging and handling precautions.
Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.